County Employee Wins Termination Suit

Gabriel Segovia, a former school resource officer with the Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office, won a wrongful termination case against the county in federal court Friday, the Leaf Chronicle reports. A jury awarded Segovia $79,382 in back pay after they found that his termination was in retribution for submitting a letter to the editor of the Chronicle. The letter questioned the city council’s allocation of funds for a park project. Segovia reports he was “berated” by the sheriff for expressing his opinion as a private citizen and a month later was dismissed for “dishonesty, insubordination and conduct unbecoming a member” of the sheriff’s department. The county argued that the letter played no part in the dismissal.